Slay pedals support for Kinder, Tour of Missouri
ST. LOUIS — Mayor Francis Slay — the top booster for any plan that brings visitors and cash to the city, whether its from Republican or Democratic minds — does not need any extra reason to back the Tour of Missouri.
He may have one anyway, though,
The annual bike race — which, for the moment at least, is set to begin Sept. 7 in St. Louis — is in jeopardy of losing $1.5 million in state funding.
Last week, Slay posted a piece on his website, criticizing a possible move by Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget staff to cut Tour funding, and put the race in danger of being called off.
“Canceling is a losing idea,” Slay wrote. “It is irrelevant to me whether the Department of Economic Development’s recommendation to withhold a pledged contribution to the race from the state of Missouri was based on penny-pinching in a tough economy or on politics in a two-party state.”
The Tour, Slay wrote, “tells people unexpected things about Missouri.”
But Slay, a Democrat, has another reason to oppose the cut: The bike race is the pet project of his strongest GOP ally, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.
During Slay’s re-election campaign this year, Kinder contributed his voice to a robo-call that went out to select voters, most likely camouflage Republicans in far south St. Louis.
Wonder if they’re cycling fans, too?
Let Slay come up with the $1.5 mil. if he loves this race so much! Come on, people–Kinder has known since Nixon took office that the Tour couldn’t sustain itself; he ignored the handwriting on the wall that said it was no longer a budget priority, and now he wants to rally the faithful to this doomed cause at the last minute. What Kinder is doing is and was always foolhardy; all he had to do was keep ignoring the facts in order to make himself out a hero. He takes no personal responsibility for failing to find the private support to fully establish the Tour, and now seeks to make Gov. Nixon the villain. Others might fall for this–including Slay–but some of us were actually paying attention.
Peter Kinder is a loser and so is his race. The race will be covered on what national network and broadcast to how many people. I have seem the numbers the lying Mr. KInder is throwing around and every racer would have to bring 10 people with them and they would all have to spend 10K. Isn’t it time for real change n America isn’t it time that we get rid of these idiots who are rolling us along the road to ruin? What was Peter Kinder before his tenure, a lawyer like Slay? There is only just-us there is no justice left in America.
Mayor Slay should stay out of this battle as the top Democrat in the City of St. Louis, because this is truly showing some bad signs. Many people already believe that Mayor Slay is a closet Republican, and this only adds fuel to the fire. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder should advocate that the $1.5 million dollars go to lock up more child sexual predators across the State of Missouri, which is more important than the bike race. The Lt. Gov. could speak up more aggressively to stop the child predators, instead of cheerleading for the bike pedalers.
Everyone knows that Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is planning on running against Governor Jay Nixon in 2012, and this looks like an early endorsement of the Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder by Mayor Slay. If you use a stick to stir cow manure in a bucket and never touch the cow manure, you still will smell like cow manure when you walk away.
Mayor Slay can’t possibly be supporting Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder for Governor in 2012, because all the Democrats were hoping you would be supportive of the re-election of Governor Jay Nixon. This sure smells like some COW MANURE!
Kinder and Slay are generous. As long as it’s someone else’s money.
While I agree with you that the race should be privately funded, I cannot agree that it should be abandoned this year. This years Tour of Missouri is going to be extremely high profile with the best teams from this year’s Tour de France participating– the best cyclists from around the world. By deciding to keep this year’s investment in the tour, it stands to set the tour on its feet for years to come with private funding. If the MO government pulls the plug now, not only will it cause this years tour to cancel quite abruptly, but it will effectively ruin tour opportunities for years to come. The government has a responsibility to the Missouri businesses and citizens that have already made financial commitments and signed contracts in order to make this tour happen.
As a democrat, I would like to see politics put aside to see this great race continue. I strongly believe it is an investment in our state that after this year, will be able to be self-sustaining. While some of you may not actually believe that people watch bicycle races, I encourage you to look at pictures of last year’s Tour and look at the crowds. People come from all over the Midwest to watch this world class event and this year, for the first time Lance Armstrong’s team will be racing. I am confident that the investment will repay itself.